


Matter and Motion

by Vivax (Raido)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Convenient Caves, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Forced Cohabitation, Rey doesn't take any of Kylo's shit, Sharing a Bed, Shirtless Kylo Ren, Unconsciousness as a plot device, Uneasy Allies, Unresolved Sexual Tension, like there's going to be a lot so strap in, trapped together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-02-17 23:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13088007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raido/pseuds/Vivax
Summary: Instead of leaving Kylo on Starkiller Base, Rey takes him captive for the Resistance. Not compliant with The Last Jedi.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd because I'm trash.

Red and Blue. Hot and Cold. Dark and Light. Exhilaration. Saber in hand, Rey prowled around the prone form of Kylo Ren. He was bleeding heavily, a jagged red cut across his long face. He looked up at her, his expression awed and disbelieving. His breath was ragged as he watched her approach and it caught slightly when she raised the blue saber above him. He deserved this, she told herself. For Han and the countless others he had slain in his desperate grapple for power. For Finn, maimed and unconscious aboard the Falcon; her first true friend and companion. She raised the saber higher.

A deep crack from far below, and the ground shifted from beneath her, sending her violently to her knees. The planet, violated and hollow, was collapsing in on itself. Trees quaked around her as she struggled to stand once again. Kylo Ren was no longer staring at her in awe. He lay crumpled in the snow, unconscious from his wounds. Blood seeped into the snow and slid down his long nose. Rey lifted her saber again. She could end it right now, avenge the deaths of the millions who had perished at the hands of Ren and his knights. The First Order would be crippled without him, she knew. The weight of his life and his actions was heavy between them, and Rey felt sick. She reached again for that force of light inside her, for that sense of calm rage that had had him stumbling backwards. Nothing, empty, deserted. Hot, angry tears slid down her face as she lowered the saber and powered it down. He deserved death, but not at her hands. She had only been part of this war for several short days; his crimes against her were nothing in comparison to those against the galaxy. He deserved to face his actions at the mercy of the Resistance. He deserved to face Leia Organa and answer for the life of her husband. Rey squared her aching body and she bent to the broken form of Kylo Ren.

* * *

The First Order shuttle had been nearer than the Falcon, and dragging Kylo Ren’s massive body up the onramp had been surprisingly less difficult than she had imagined. She had bound him in some sort of tether she had found, and secured it to the copilot seat next to her. Although it was rather unideal to have his lolling form sprawled out next to her, she didn’t want to risk him waking up and ambushing her from behind. She had retrieved his saber from the snow, and stashed it in the compartment above her, while placing her own within arm’s reach. The shuttle itself hadn’t been familiar to her, but she was quickly able to ascertain where the necessary controls were. If she could just bring them out of the planet’s atmosphere, she would then be able to calm down enough to work out the rest. A choking noise brought her out of her reverie. She turned to find Ren, struggling against the tight cord, fury painted across his face.

“ _You._ Scavenger. What-.” He attempted to stand, but his massive form knocked against the side of the cockpit. Rey instinctively seized the saber beside her, igniting the blue plasma. 

“Sit. Slowly.” She commanded, her voice steadier than she felt. He glared at her, not moving. “Now,” She ordered, pointing the saber directly at his chest. He slowly moved to sit, back against the side of the shuttle. He looked ready to faint again if the white around his eyes and lips were any tell. He looked weak, pathetic. Trussed up like she had felt back on Starkiller base. She powered off the saber, and made to tighten the tether around his waist when his hand shot out against the bonds. He grabbed her wrist in his large hand, twisting it and bringing up against him. The effort clearly cost him: his body shook against hers, but as she felt the saber slip from between the fingers of her other hand, she grappled at the strength of his force. His eyes were mad, boring into hers as he gained the upper hand.“ _No!_ ” she shrieked, and the saber slipped further away. She pushed forward again regaining control, and he grunted as the saber slowed its progress. _Almost there_ , she willed herself. Her fingers grasped at the hilt, sliding under his outstretched hand. Her fingers caught on the edge of the trigger. There was a flash ofbrightest blue, and the cockpit was suddenly filled with smoke as Rey struggled to understand what had just happened. Her vision clouded and the world spiralled around her. The shuttle lurched to the side and Ren’s body was thrown against hers. It lurched again and Rey fell forward, her head coming in contact with something very hard. The world turned to black.

* * *

Kylo woke abruptly, trapped and aching, his long body twisted by the binds that the scavenger had so nobly tried to subdue him with. The world was a flurry of cracks and pops of light, and as he blinked his surroundings into focus, the acrid stench of burning chemicals accosted him. Panic rose in his chest as he fought to free himself before he suffocated or was consumed by the fire that was most certainly eating up the engine of the ruined shuttle. Sensing his saber in the compartment above him, he willed his foggy brain to focus. Finally, saber in hand, Kylo freed himself and set about extricating his body from the wreckage.

Stumbling from the aircraft, he was immediately thrown back by a force of cold that nearly choked him. Sputtering, he took a look at the planet the girl had so unwittingly stranded them on. It was white, and grey and white again; a snow planet much like Starkiller had been. This gave Kylo a sense of hope. Planetary climates were usually somewhat similar within the same system; if he had to be stranded on some gods-forsaken ice planet, there was at least hope that the First Order fleet was not so far behind. However, as he struggled in the knee-deep drift, Kylo knew that if he didn’t find shelter fast it wouldn’t matter how near or far rescue was.

Reaching out again through the force, Kylo let his mind travel across the barren plateau weaving in and around the topography, searching for some sign of other inhabitants. The lives he sensed were starved, anxious things, with tiny vibrating hearts and long snow-weathered ears. He concentrated on their location, finding several huddled together not a mile away from him. He took a step forwards and the wind tangled with his robes and stung his wounded face. Beads of red froze across his mangled face like a caustic sunburst. The burn brought him back to his self: Starkiller base, Han Solo’s lifeless body, the scavenger girl… 

An ache that was not associated with his lacerated face blossomed in his chest. Had she survived the crash? He thought it unlikely; after all, even he had been but inches away from his own violent end. She was probably crushed under the weight of the burning shuttle. A part of him hoped, even wished she was. He thought of Snoke and his orders to bring the girl to him. Easier to lie that he had been forced to kill the girl than try to explain to his master how he had been bested by untrained child.

But something deep in him knew he would have felt her absence in the force if she was truly gone. That accursed connection would have snapped like so many worn threads. “ _Kriff,_ ” he muttered to himself, turning toward the craft. He winced, reaching for the girl’s consciousness through the Force. He felt her heartbeat, slow and sluggish, somewhere to his left. She was alive. Injured, and slowly freezing, but alive. He swore again.

* * *

It was bitterly cold even inside the small cave, and Kylo’s attempts at making a fire in his injured condition were proving to be futile. The creatures that he had sensed had fled further into the cavern leaving Kylo alone with the pile of damp branches he had gathered. Frustrated, he glanced at Rey’s prone figure, curled in on itself where he had lain her. One look at her pallid skin and bluish lips brought garnered two conclusions: if he didn’t find a source of heat fast Rey would die of hyperthermia, all the effort and energy he had just expended would be for naught. And more importantly, if Rey died before he could bring her to Leader Snoke, he would face a worse fate. He tried again to ignite the sad stack of branches and twigs, pressing the side of his saber into the wood. Steam rose around him, and with it, a spark of a flame as the wood began to concede. Satisfied, Kylo bent towards Rey, examining her closely for the first time since her interrogation on Starkiller. Her tanned skin had taken on an unhealthy tinge, and as he drew closer he could see that she was shivering weakly. He attempted to wipe away the remaining snow that clung to the grey bandages she called clothes, but it was clear that the fabric was soaked through. He frowned. The weak fire would not be enough to dry the girl’s clothes, let alone rouse her from unconsciousness. Her lithe body, immune to the blazing heat of Jakku, would perish if she remained as she was. She needed dry, warm clothes, and fast…

He fastidiously removed the outer layer of his robes, shivering as the chill seeped through the thinner tunic beneath. The cloth was soaked with his blood from the wound from the bowcaster, but there was nothing to be done for that. Rey was still curled next to him, and he paused to look at her. He could just let her freeze. Take the beating from Snoke. It would be easy. It would solve so many of his problems. _It wouldn’t involve him undressing an unconscious scavenger girl._ But his gloved hands were already carefully moving her limp body onto the thick overcoat, black wool against soft freckles. “ _Force_ ,” he thought to himself as he unwrapped the dirty soaked fabric. Her skin was mottled purple at both the wrists and ankles, a shadow of the metal binds he had placed her in during his interrogation. He winced, then shook himself. He left her in her grey underthings, wrapped tightly in black, and turned back to the now crackling fire. Satisfied with his work, a wave of exhaustion hit him. Collapsing next to the small bundle that was the girl, Kylo fell into unconsciousness. 


	2. Chapter 2

Kylo woke to a sharp jab to his lower belly. He doubled over, clutching at the wound in his side. The girl was towering over him, the black wool cloak at her feet; clad in nothing but her breast band and smalls. “Where are we? Why am I- Where are my clothes?” Her gaze was fire and rage and fear. She pointed the end of a burning branch at his face, her foot pressing down on his wounded side.

“You… Aaahh…” He groaned, forcing himself to come to his senses. “You were freezing, I had to.”

“What?”

“You were freezing," he reiterated, "You, _listen_ , you would have died.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You were going into shock, I had to get you warm-” Why was he attempting to explain himself?

“So you decided to take off my clothes while I was unconscious? What kind of sick pervert-”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he snarled, struggling to his feet. As if he would debase himself with some stupid scavenger girl. “Those rags you call clothes were soaked through. And I didn’t leave you naked,” he spat, gesturing to the crumpled black robe at her feet.

“And I should be thanking you for that? That you still have some shred of decency?” she spat back, thin arms crossing against her chest. Kylo jabbed a finger towards her.

"You _should_ be thanking me on bended knee! I could have easily left you to burn!"

"Oh, and I'm supposed to believe you did that out of the kindness of your heart? A selfless act of heroism? _Please_ ," she scoffed. The burning tip of her makeshift weapon brushed against his chest. He swiped at it, the weak embers no match for leather gloves. 

"What use could I possibly have for some filthy scavenger girl who was clumsy enough to destroy her own ship.”

“Then why not let me die? You said you could have easily done it.” 

“Why didn’t you leave me on the Starkiller? You could have easily done that.” 

“I- You deserve to face justice for what you’ve done,” she narrowed her eyes, “dying on that planet would have been too good for you.”

“You mean you wouldn’t have been satisfied. Never mind what the rebels would have decreed, you crave my pain, my humiliation. That power that’s inside you, that part of you that desires revenge, I can feel it. I told you, I can teach you to wield it.”

“You’re delusional.” She stepped back and a chill ran visibly through her body. Kylo could see goosebumps on her freckled skin. Glaring at him, she picked up the discarded robe and wrapped it around herself. There was a moment of tension when they assessed each other and the situation they had found themselves in. Rey was the first to break contact, taking in the cave and its jagged walls. She took in the small fire and the saber Kylo had left beside it. “Where’s my saber?”

Seeing as she wasn’t about to threaten him again, Kylo shrugged, feeling distinctly bad tempered and done with the conversation. “I don’t know. Probably still in the shuttle.” Rey began walking towards the mouth of the cave. Kylo blinked. “What are you doing?” she ignored him. “You can’t go out there!” He ran after her, grabbing her thin arm. 

“Don’t tell me what I can or cannot do,” she snarled at him, “Let me go.”

“No. I just dragged you in here, I’m not letting you waste my effort on some stupid, harebrained idea.”

“You and your effort can go fuck yourself. Let. Me. Go.”

“Listen, look, if you go out there you’ll die,” she ignored again him, tugging her arm of his grasp. “ _Rey_ ,”he intoned, not letting go. “Listen to me; it’s a mile away, you’re wearing nothing but a cloak, you’re tired. You won’t last half an hour.”

She looked up at him, put off by the use of her name. “Why do you care?”

“Does it matter? Look, your saber isn’t a priority right now. We need to find more wood for the fire and figure out something for food. You can go look for the damn sword after the storm clears up a bit.” 

She looked uneasy. “How do I know you won’t murder me when my back’s turned?” She gestured to his saber, “You have a weapon; I don’t.”

“I didn’t kill you when you were unconscious.” He reminded her.

“No, you just took my clothes off.”

He ignored that. “I’m not going to hurt you. Look, we’re stranded on some force-forsaken planet. As far as I can tell their isn’t any intelligent life here, but I’d rather face angry locals with someone I know can fight than all by myself.” She seemed to consider this argument, her small, expressive face skeptical. He waited.

“Fine.” She turned back towards the inside of the cave. “But as soon as we figure out how to get out of here, I’m turning you over to the Resistance. Just because you saved my life doesn’t make you any better.” 

Kylo scowled. “Whatever.”

* * *

He was crowding her. She knew he probably didn’t mean to, considering the size of the cave, but her proximity to his large body made her supremely uneasy. He was using part of his cross guard to sear off the flesh from some furry creature he had caught, and, despite her fear of the angry red blade, she had to appreciate the utilitarian nature of the act. Scavenging for most of her life had given her a sense of appreciation for these types of things, and Kylo Ren was surpassing her expectations. She wondered if he had experience with such rugged living. 

She was about to ask him, but then bit her tongue. This was _Kylo Ren_. Murderer. War Criminal. A man who had murdered his own father without a second thought. She should not be thinking of him in any other capacity than what was the best way to overpower him. He might have promised not to hurt her, but she had made no such vows. She was first, and foremost a survivor. If she had to fight Kylo Ren armed only with a stick and her own cleverness, she would. And if she had to cooperate with the accursed man to make it off this planet alive, she, begrudgingly, would. 

He handed her a slice off the animal and she speared it on a stick she had sharpened with a jagged rock. They sat in silence until the meat was cooked, and when it was cool enough to touch, both ate ravenously. 

That was the way of it for the next day. It was still too stormy to venture any further than the immediate outside of the cave. Kylo caught more of the creatures, and when Rey saw how he simply summoned them with the force, she also tried her hand. It was harder than it he made it look, and she found herself watching him closely for signs of instruction. The cut across his face was healing, slowly, leaving behind a raised pink scar. She noticed that his mouth seemed to twitch when he snapped the creature’s necks, but other than that she couldn’t glean any sense of how he was doing it. 

After the fourth time he summoned the creature (Rey was watching out of the corner of her eye), Kylo turned slightly to where she was fiddling with the pile of bones from their last meal. 

“You just need to feel their essence. Where they are in the Force. You’re not moving them; you’re manipulating the space around them.” 

He wasn’t looking at her, which she was glad for. His gloved hand suddenly clenched, and she could she the animal rising from the snow several yards away. It had bright black eyes that still shone with vitality. Kylo twisted his hand again and the creature fell limply to the ground. Rey looked away. 

Later, after Kylo had fallen into a fitful sleep, Rey sat at the entrance of the cave. She closed her eyes, feeling the cold surround her. Her clothes had long since dried, but she had kept the cape Kylo had wrapped around her. He hadn’t asked for it back, and seeing how much colder it was on this planet than Jakku, Rey was silently thankful. Her nose was numb, but instead of ignoring the sensation, she allowed herself to feel it in its entirety. The ground was hard and uneven, but she accepted it. She remembered what Kylo had said about the space between things, and tried to concentrate on the space around her. Nothing. Nothing but the storm outside and the quiet breath of her unlikely companion. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dialling up the UST, my dudes. Also some Shirtless Kylo Ren™.

It was the morning of the third day since the crash, and Rey was going stir-crazy. The storm still hadn’t abated, and although Kylo had mentioned briefly that it seemed to be getting less violent, it couldn’t come fast enough for Rey. She was sitting next to the ever increasing pile of animal bones, fiddling with she thought might be a leg joint. Kylo had his back turned to her and was scratching at something with a blackened stick. 

They had fallen into somewhat of a working routine. They’d wake up when the planet’s weak suns broke through the flurries. Both would ignore the closeness their bodies had achieved during the cold night, opting instead to avoid eye contact as they set about their routine. Kylo would catch something to break their fast, and, after repeatedly assuring him that she wasn’t about to slice him in half, Rey would carefully skin the creature with the saber as she had seen Kylo do on their first day. She insisted she help with something because it gave her some sort of purpose and something to take out her frustration at being trapped with the last person in the galaxy she wanted to talk to. But even dissecting and rearranging the leftover remains (Kylo had given her a funny look, but said nothing), was starting to bore her. She couldn’t understand why Kylo hadn’t also gone completely mad. She glanced over at him again, his broad shoulders slumped in concentration on whatever he was doing. She paused.

“Show me.”

“What?’” Kylo stopped was he was doing and turned lightly towards her.

Rey steeled her resolve. “I want to know how you’re able to sense the animals a hundred yards away under five feet of snow.”

Kylo turned full to face her, his face betraying none of his thoughts.

“I’m not accepting your offer,” she said quickly, “I just think that it would be better if both of us could hunt, just in case something happens. I don’t want you to teach me _the ways of the Force_ or whatever you were ranting about, I just want to be prepared.”

“Usually when people ask for help they don’t immediately insult the other person.”

“Well its not like you’re doing anything particularly productive anyways.” She gestured to the charcoal covered stones in his corner of the cave. “You offered first.”

“I did.” He considered her wary face, and rubbed a soot-covered finger across the bridge of his nose.

“Or you could, you know, just muck around with charcoal all day.”

“You’re really bad at asking for favours, you know.”

“Show me,” she repeated. Kylo raised his dark eyebrows. She hesitated. “ _Please_.”

Silence.

“Fine.”

Rey let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “Okay, great. So…um-”

“I’ll help you, but on one condition.”

She immediately bristled back. “No. I’m not joining your knights, or the First Order or whatever.”

Kylo looked exasperated. “I’m not asking you to. I just need a second pair of hand to help with this.”

He moved to the hem of his tunic, and slowly lifted it above his head. Goosebumps erupted as the cold air met his pale skin. Rey hadn’t given much thought to the injuries Kylo had sustained during the attack on Starkiller. Clearly he had been hiding whatever pain he was going through, because as the fabric was removed, Rey could see a large blaster wound, crusted with dried blood and swollen dangerously pink around the edges. She flinched at the sight, and as she gazed at his exposed body, she see that he was shaking slightly from both the cold and the pain. She bit her lip. 

“What do you want me to do?”

* * *

 Kylo thanked whatever force-blessed deity that had gifted him with a strong constitution. Despite his battered state, he had been able to drag himself and the girl from the wreckage and carry her. It had been an ironic reflection of the battle of Takodana; the girl he had once abducted, now brought to safety in his same arms. However, the cut in his side was not something he could heal from without some sort of medical intervention. The wound required disinfection, and the sooner the better. Unfortunately, even if there was medical supplies that survived that the crash, he was not about to brave the ice storm that raged outside the cave. And he couldn’t very well ask the scavenger to go looking for supplies in her thin rags. That left one, very unpleasant, very agonizing option.

He lay on his discarded tunic and the cloak he had given to the girl on the first day, anxiety bubbling in his chest. He knew the vulnerable position he was putting himself in, but he was counting on the girl’s clear moral righteousness that she would not rend him in pieces. She had been surprisingly okay with the task he asked of her; clearly cauterizing wounds was not a completely uncommon practice on Jakku. She palmed his saber, and the sight of the black metal in her small hand made his heart jump with something he could not put a name to. She was biting her lip slightly, assessing the wound like it was one of her dismembered animals. He steeled himself to the possibility of of becoming another one of her art projects.

She ignited the saber, and he shivered.

“So… uh, should I count to three or something?”

 He looked up at her and the jagged red blade held aloft in her hand and felt a thrill of fear. 

“Uh, yeah, that’d be fine.”

Rey counted down, and Kylo took a deep breath. She pressed the edge of the longsword against the puckered flesh, and heat and the stench of burning flesh filled the cave. Kylo bit back a scream. Rey look at him, concern in her hazel eyes.

“Keep. Going,” he bit out.

Sealing the flesh took several applications of the blade, as the wound was large, and by the time Rey had finished, Kylo was nearly faint from the exertion it had taken to not shove away the girl with the Force. When she had finished, she powered down his saber and sat back on her heels looking appraisingly at his midriff. 

“I think that’s probably the best I can do, considering. I’ll go grab you some ice to help with the pain.” Before he could speak, she had crossed to the outside of the cave and began packing some snow into a scrap she had torn off her arm wrappings. Kneeling down at his side once again, she carefully dabbed at the newly blackened skin. He winced, but the cold was a welcome relief. “Does that feel okay?”

“I- Yes. Thank you.” He said, surprised by the thoughtfulness of the act. After all, not a week ago he had tried to pick apart her deepest thoughts. Although, she _had_ sliced open his face. 

He looked up at her again and met her wide eyes. She was fierce and blazing, and he felt something stir within him. 

“You’re welcome.” She paused, as uncomfortable as he was with this moment of intimacy. “I’ll leave you to rest then.” She turned back to her side of the cave. 

He blinked, then shook his head and retreated to his pile of crumpled black wool. 

* * *

Rey hadn’t realized how _big_ he was. Yes, she had a vague idea. She had been in uncomfortably close proximity to him in the interrogation room on Starkiller, but she had accounted his towering figure to a combination of the long robes he wore, and presence of character. Now, as she watched him apply the make-shift cold press to his wound, she was struck by just how large he really was. He was thickly muscled, probably from his years of training with his knights. His hands were rough and long fingered, and could probably fit around her entire arm. But despite his size, there was something elegant about his pale skin and long face, dotted with beauty marks. He might have been beautiful, if not for the pink wound that stretched across his face. _The wound she had given him_. 

She gave him several hours of rest before she became inpatient with the overwhelming stillness in the cave. His ice had long since melted, and he was currently lying stretched out on the makeshift blankets, dozing peacefully. His long eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks.

“I did what you asked. Now show me.”

He sat up slowly, his face softened by sleep. 

“Alright. What do you know about the Force, Rey?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated! Please, please leave a comment below, even if it's just to roast me for being such a sucker for troupes :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how the Force works.

He had insisted that she at least learn to meditate, and having no knowledge to dispute this seemingly useless task, Rey had reluctantly acquiesced. His reasoning behind it (“You need to learn to concentrate your energy; funnel it with your intentions instead of letting it run wild”) only made vague sense to her, so she had to tell her self to trust that the master of the Knights of Ren and former apprentice of Luke Skywalker knew what he was talking about. But the way he corrected her posture with small touches to her ankles and wrists, and the warmth of his large hand as it pressed against small of her back felt nothing like the sterile instructions she had requested. His soft affirmations and encouragements sparked a swell of some foreign emotion in her chest that she couldn’t name, but she accounted to the strange dynamic of the situation. A dynamic that felt _much_ more like of that between a master and apprentice and not at all like that of two sworn enemies. It made her uneasy, as well as another, softer emotion, which was making it much harder to divide the meaning of his words from the low timber of his voice. Her frustration at her lack of progress was mounting, and she knew Kylo could sense it. He placed a hand over hers where it had begun fidgeting with the frayed end of her tunic. 

“You need to centre yourself. Let go of your fear of me.” He towered over her and she could feel his breath tickle her exposed neck when he spoke. She snatched her hand away from his.

“It’s a bit hard to concentrate when you're breathing down my neck.”

He ignored her. “Find that place you go to when you want to escape. When you would pretend you weren't trapped on that sand-filled wasteland.” 

“Why?” 

“Just do it.”

“I don't understand why I need to daydream to centre myself.” She went back to fiddling with the grey fabric. Kylo sat back on his heels. 

“It's not daydreaming; it's finding that place within you that brings you peace. Belonging. Everyone has one. Find _yours_.”

She turned and glared at him. His face was serious, imploring her to listen. 

“Close your eyes, Rey.” 

She did. 

She sighed and sat, considering his words. For the first years alone on Jakku, the only thing Rey had dwelt upon was the day her family would come back for her. It was a childish sort of hope that she had never truly lost, but as the years passed by and Rey grew older, her dreams had changed. She never forget her parents, but she found herself drawn increasingly to thoughts of a place, far away, where the air was crisp with salt and the land teemed with foreign life. 

“There was one place, but it wasn't really a dream. It can’t have been; there aren’t any places like it on Jakku. It was beautiful and green and had blue water surrounding it…”

“The island.”

Her eyes snapped open. Anger bloomed suddenly in her chest; the reality of their situation returning with full force. 

“You say that I'm having trouble concentrating. That I'm not focusing. Well, maybe it's hard to force myself to be calm in the presence of the man who kidnapped me and forced his way into my mind.” 

She was on her feet, looking down at him. He hadn’t moved at her outburst, and was instead glaring rigidly up at her. 

“What do you want me to say? That I'm _sorry_? That I regret what I've done? Gods, you’re so naive. I don't. I did what I had to do; what was necessary.”

“Oh, so it was _necessary_ to bind me to a chair and pick apart my mind?” The rage and frustration at being trapped alone with him was finally bubbling to the surface. She felt righteous in her anger, the force of it coursing through her.

Kylo blinked, unperturbed. “Yes.”

“How?”

“Would you have given up the map to Skywalker willingly?”

She snorted “Of course not.” 

“Then it was necessary.”

“Necessary for what? Why did you need it so badly? The map? What would you have done if you found Skywalker?"

“I would have done as the Supreme Leader bid me.”

“Which would be what?”

“Kill him. Erase the Jedi legacy. It's what I was meant to do.”

“Because it was _necessary_? Why is the Supreme Leader so frightened of a man who's been missing for nine years?”

Kylo was still sitting in front of her, unmoving. It incensed her to see him like this; the man known for his violent character, so calm and untouched. It wasn’t fair. She wanted him to hurt, to feel the torrid of emotions that she had experienced since he had abducted her. The fear, the pain, the violation, the loss. She stepped towards him.

“Was it necessary to murder your own father? He was unarmed; I saw everything.”

A shadow crossed Kylo’s face and Rey nearly smiled.

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“Oh, don’t I? He loved you and you killed him. You were afraid so you _did_ _what was necessary_ ,” she mocked him, “to escape your emotions. You think you're so strong. You’re nothing but a coward.” She spat at him.

Kylo roared, rearing to his feet.

“ _You_. You think you know so much about me. Little Rey, so young, yet so wise; thinks she can take on what the galaxy has set in motion. You don’t know anything. You’re just some stupid little scavenger girl.”

Rey laughed, coldly. “You’re right. _I am_ a stupid little scavenger girl from a nowhere planet. It must bother you so much that your thoughts are so transparent to someone so _stupid_. You know what I think? I think the Supreme leader could care less about Luke Skywalker. I think this whole ploy to kill him is just you fighting your fear that he’ll come back and destroy you like he destroyed Darth Vader.” She scoffed. “But you don’t have to worry. You’re not nearly as strong or as dangerous as him. You’re just some rabid creature who hides behind a mask. You’re nothing.” She spat.

Kylo’s face was white with rage. Rey felt it across the bound they shared. His anger, his fear, his absolute terror that she _knew,_ that she had seen that part of him that he had worked so hard to keep hidden. He thrust out a hand towards her, fingers clenched in a phantom choke-hold. She felt the force tighten around her windpipe as she struggled to breathe. She sputtered, hands scrabbling at her throat. She met his eyes, blown black with fury. “You know, you were right to pick a new name, _Kylo Ren._ ” Tiny bursts of light appeared in her vision, and she felt her consciousness waver. “You don’t deserve to be called _‘Solo’_.”

There was a deafening crack as Rey was thrown back from were she stood and she struck the side of the cave and collapsed on the floor. Kylo was on all fours, panting, having fallen forward. Under where his hands were splayed on the cave floor was a jagged crack that ran horizontal between them. Rey struggled to regain control of her limbs, casting her eyes wildly for some sort of weapon. She spotted the saber lying several feet away and scrambled on scrapped hands and knees to clutch at the black metal. She ignited the sword, pointing it at his prone figure. He looked up at her, clutching his side, his breath ragged.

“Do it. _Kill me_. You want to, I can feel it.”

She thought again of the lives he had taken. His past crimes. His future plans. She thought again of Han’s broken body as it fell. The red blade called her to complete the action. She lowered it across his neck.

“You hold him in such high esteem. You idolize him. I told you, he would have disappointed you.”

She looked at him in disgust. “Not as much as you disappointed him.” She shut down the saber and turned away from him towards the entrance of the cave. 

Storm be damned, she needed air.

* * *

 

She would return to the cave eventually, he knew. The strength it would take to create and maintain the blanket of heat around herself to shield against the storm would take its toll, and she would eventually have return to him. To the cave. Not him. He was surprised she hadn’t returned already; she had left in just her scavenger rags, and although the snow had mostly abated, Kylo was sure she had never had to deal with such low temperatures before. Kylo told himself he only cared because she still had his saber. He didn’t have the strength to go after her; his newly cauterized wound had cracked when he fell, and he couldn’t move without agonizing pain. So he waited, furious with the situation, at his own incompetence, at somehow letting the girl best him once again. Her words had shook him and he couldn’t comprehend how she had seen so accurately the things he hid even from himself, force connection or not. Her presence called to a part of him, hidden deep and disguised by years of denial, but he knew that there was also a part of him that was uncomfortably familiar to her. She denied it, but he felt it when she looked at him. He had felt it as she cauterized his wound and he felt it again as she had lain the same blade across his neck. It was unnerving, and it both agitated and intrigued him. 

She returned several hours later. Darkness had fallen and Kylo had taken to fiddling with the pile of bones Rey had been twisting together earlier that day. 

She marched back into the cave, drenched with melted snow and flung something furry at his feet. Without looking at him, she turned towards the fire that Kylo had just finished stoking and began undressing. They were practiced movements and Kylo found himself fascinated by the way the warm light of the fire shone behind her tanned skin. Still ignoring him, she wrapped herself in the cloak she had claimed and when he didn’t move she set to work butchering and roasting the animal she had caught. She afforded him a piece of charred meat to which he awkwardly took and ate. The tension in the cave was palpable, but neither one felt like broaching what had passed hours ago. Rey seemed content to avoid his eyes, and Kylo was glad of the silence. 

The night grew colder and both lay down in front of the fire to sleep. Several hours passed in which Kylo slept fitfully until he was awoken by the sound of teeth chattering next to him. Rey had wrapped the cloak tightly around herself, but without the her clothes and the chill she was surely still feeling, her body was shaking violently. Wordlessly he pulled her body against his. She said nothing, letting him wrap his long arms around her cold body. Finally, her tremors stilled and her breathing slowed, and Kylo allowed his chin to rest against the top of her head. Her body began to warm to his, and soon he was falling into deep sleep, lulled by the feeling of her small body against his.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I wasn't too sure about this chapter, but I decided to post it anyways. Let me know what you think!


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